Service Portal with Application Framework for Facilitating Application and Feature Development

1. A method in a computer system for providing a single access point to an application, comprising: receiving, over a communication network from a client machine, an application request at a portal framework; determining a requested feature content mechanism using the application request from a plurality of feature content mechanisms; routing at least a portion of the application request to the requested feature content mechanism; building a response with the requested feature content mechanism based on the routed portion of the application request and having an application content portion; modifying the response by integrating a reusable presentation container portion with the application content portion; and transmitting the modified response from the portal framework over the communication network to the client machine.

2. The method of claim 1 , further including with the portal framework retrieving and storing data specific to the application and a listing of the feature content mechanisms in cache memory and initializing the application based on the application-specific data.

3. The method of claim 1 , further including prior to the routing to the requested feature content mechanism, routing at least a portion of the application request to a feature controller previously created by the portal framework based on a controller identifier retrieved from the requested feature content mechanism.

4. The method of claim 3 , further including creating a feature model interface with the portal framework based on a message from the feature controller, wherein the feature content page retrieves display properties from the feature model interface prior to the building.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the feature model interface retrieves the display properties from a business model mechanism defining business rules.

6. The method of claim 4 , further including prior to the building, retrieving with the feature model interface service data specific to the application request.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the building is performed using Java™ Server Pages.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reusable presentation portion includes a header, a menu, and a footer.

9. The method of claim 1 , further including verifying a user authorized to access the application is logged in at the client machine.

10. The method of claim 1 , further including verifying the application request was sent by a user authorized to access the requested feature of the service.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a connection pool including a set of connections to service data for inclusion in the modified response, operating a data access layer for managing the set of connections, and with an interface to the data access layer and a business model providing populated objects based on business rules.

12. A computer system for managing operation of an application to provide a service to users and to facilitate feature development for the application, comprising: a service application including feature mechanisms for providing functions of the service, wherein each of the feature mechanisms includes a model interface portion, a view portion, and a controller portion; a memory device storing data related to the application; and a portal framework linked to a communication network and adapted for receiving from a client over the communication network a user request and for transmitting a response to the client, wherein the portal framework is further configured to process the user request to determine a requested one of the feature mechanisms, to route the user request to the requested feature mechanism, and to build the response with the view portion of the identified feature mechanisms using the application data in the memory device.

13. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein each of the feature mechanisms can be replaced without modification of other ones of the feature mechanisms and the portal framework.

14. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the controller portion comprises a feature controller and the model interface comprises a feature model interface with properties set by the feature controller.

15. The computer system of claim 14 , wherein the view portion comprises a feature content page retrieved by the portal framework based on an identifier in the user request and having properties obtained from the feature model interface.

16. The computer system of claim 15 , wherein feature content page is blocked from accessing the feature controller.

17. The computer system of claim 15 , wherein the feature controller is blocked from accessing the response.

18. The computer system of claim 14 , wherein the portal framework further includes a connection pool having a set of connections to the memory device and a data access layer for controlling use of the connections and wherein the feature model interface is adapted to interface with the data access layer to retrieve the application-related data as part of operating the view portion.

19. The computer system of claim 12 , wherein the response comprises application content provided by the view portion and a presentation portion integrated with the application portion by the portal framework.

20. The computer system of claim 19 , wherein the response is in HTTP form including Java™ Server Page segments from the portal framework and the view portion.